NASA Satellites Confirm - Greenland's Glaciers "Speeding Like Gangbusters" To The Sea - Chronicle

[hatrack]

NASA scientists reading signals from a satellite in orbit, and flying aboard a low-flying plane over Greenland, are finding fresh evidence of melting snows and thinning glaciers in vast areas of the massive island. Their observations confirm the climate's warming trend in the far northern reaches of the world, they say, where changes in the circulation of waters feeding into the Arctic Ocean are altering crucial patterns of ocean currents there with effects that are increasingly uncertain.

The pace of glaciers sliding into the sea along Greenland's southwestern coast "is speeding like gangbusters this year," said William Krabill, leader of a NASA team that has just ended a three-week airborne mission probing glacier dynamics with lasers and radar.

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And while the glaciers are on the move, Greenland's snows have been melting over large areas of the ice sheet, according to Marco Tedesco, a research scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center who has been working on a joint climate study project with the University of Maryland. Data from a Defense Department meteorology satellite show that last spring the snow on Greenland melted over an area of more than 375,000 square miles -- nearly 2 1/2 times the surface area of California, Tedesco said Friday in a telephone interview. That was far more than the island's average summertime snowmelt area of 350,000 square miles, he said.

Eighteen years of the satellite observations have shown that while the fluctuating trend of melting ice continues, Tedesco said, last summer didn't set the all-time record for snowmelt area on Greenland's surface. For example, five summers ago the melting snow covered more than 540,000 square miles -- nearly 3 1/2 times California's area, he said. The satellite data also showed that last summer the island experienced more days of melting snow and at higher altitudes than the average of all the past years -- particularly in the southern part of the island, he said.

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/02/MNG4VQ6A0B1.DTL

[n2doc]

1. And yet people think putting in CO2 limits only will fix all this

It is too late, folks, to just talk about plans to cut CO2 emissions. They have to happen AND other steps need to be taken. CO2 is too high already.

[Mabus]

5. When you're right, you're right

People need to start doing more and talking less. The problem is here. It is real. We are responsible for it and we need to take responsibility and do something. It's so fucking frustrating though. I know I've reduced my carbon footprint because my utility bills reflect it. I know other people are doing it but we all need to do more.

I'm going to send the link and a message to my congress critters and then follow up with a phone call. While I won't have much sway with either republican (Brownback or Roberts) but I can let the Dems (Moore and Boyda) know that they need to do something. I'll do the same with local officials. I don't know what else I can do.

[Double T]

2. I believe the rate of increase in global warming will continue.........

to accelerate at an incalculable rate as emissions continue to rapidly increase from manufacturing and transportation around the world. Our days grow short and MOST don't care.

[Pirate Smile]

3. K & R

[Systematic Chaos]

4. Another kick for the most important post in this forum so far today.

:kick: